'See if it arrives' say postal officials after truck fire

Local post offices have fielded "quite a few" calls from people worried about the fate of their mail following a truck fire Tuesday that resulted in boxes of letters and large envelopes going up in flames, as postal authorities work to reassure customers that relatively few people were impacted.

A day after a crash between two big-rigs on the 57 freeway abruptly ended the transport of more than 100,000 letters to the Ontario airport, local postmasters took calls from concerned customers. The exact number of calls wasn’t clear, since they were spread out among various local post offices, authorities said.

They have been able to reassure customers who sent packages or were waiting for incoming mail that they were definitely not impacted by the fire

Officials said other customers likely will check back with the post offices if their letters don’t arrive within the next few days.

“I think a lot of people are waiting to see,” said Richard Maher, a postal service spokesman.

The mail was being carried in a truck contracted by the postal service to transport mail from a processing center in Santa Ana to the airport, where it would be taken throughout the country. The ZIP codes impacted by the incident cover most of Orange County.

Officials say there is no way for them to track which first class letters were on the truck, and they may never know how many people were impacted.

Authorities are urging those unsure if their mail was involved to follow up with recipients in the next few days. If important deadlines are missed because of the disruption, postal officials say, they will provide documentation proving the customer wasn’t at fault.

“Give it a chance to see if it arrives,” Maher said.

Based on the number of containers in the truck, postal officials estimate that 100,000 to 120,000 pieces of mail were destroyed. That means the truck was less than half-full, Maher said. The postal center where the truck originated can process a million pieces of mail a night, Maher added.

Most callers have been understanding, postal officials said, given the circumstances.

“They understand it was an incident beyond our control,” Maher said.

In the meantime, the postal service has contracted another truck to take the place of the damaged vehicle. Those contracted trucks handle “long-hauls,” Maher said, while vehicles owned by the postal service handle local deliveries and trips between Orange County post offices.

CHP officials are still investigating the cause of the traffic accident, which occurred in the right lane of the northbound 57 near Lambert Road about 1:30 a.m. Tuesday.